How a leading pet product brand earned SQF certification and saved 25 hours per week on QA paperwork
customer story
% Reduction
in SQF Audit Time
% Reduction
in Time to Search
% of Paper Forms
Converted to Digital
customer story
How a leading pet product brand earned SQF certification and saved 25 hours per week on QA paperwork
Published:
October 20, 2025
Key Results
No
Overhead Increase
SQF
Certified
0
Audit Findings
100%
Adoption
6 Week
Implementation
“Allera really enabled us to get SQF certified. Without that, I don’t think we ever would have.”
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Spunky Pup
Food Safety Manager at Spunky Pup
Background
SpunkyPup Pet Treats is a growing pet food manufacturer. As they expanded their distribution across state lines and pursued private label partnerships with major national retailers, they needed to scale their food safety program to meet industry certification requirements and unlock new business opportunities with major retailers and international customers.
The Challenge
SpunkyPup's quality lead faced a critical challenge: achieving SQF certification to pursue private label opportunities with major retailers.
Key challenges included:
- Need to implement a comprehensive quality program efficiently
- Requirement to scale operations without adding significant overhead
- Pressure to move quickly to capture private label business opportunities with major national retailers
"We needed to become SQF certified if we wanted to start doing private label stuff for people. That's really the main motive... Allera really enabled us to get SQF certified. Without that, I don't think we ever would have."
— Manager of QA at Spunky Pup
The solution
Hands-On Support
SpunkyPup chose Allera to scale their food safety program and achieve SQF certification. The implementation allowed them to establish comprehensive quality controls without disrupting operations.
Rapid Implementation
Implementation highlights:
- Custom workflows enabled leads to submit data and QA supervisors to verify remotely
- Role-based access ensured team members only saw relevant information for their area
- Responsive customer success support from the Allera team
- Web-based platform provided flexibility across the facility
Responsive support: "Allera was great. In a larger company, your customer success manager would just say, 'here's how you do it.' But Allera's team would step in and just do it for us sometimes, right in the system."
Quick turnaround on feedback: "If it was something completely unique to us, it wasn't just 'no'—it was 'okay, we'll consider it.' If 30% to 60% of your user base is requesting something, you guys jumped on it. I really appreciated that.
Flexible Uploads
Both supplier self-service and customer upload options
Streamlined Workflows
Approval workflows with one-click approval capabilities
Automated Tracking
Expiration tracking with 30-day and 24-hour renewal alerts
Centralized Documentation
Over 1,000 supplier documents across their entire supplier network
The results
SQF Certification and Significant Revenue Growth
With Allera, SpunkyPup successfully achieved SQF certification and unlocked significant business opportunities. After a previous failed attempt with a different software vendor, the company was able to secure major private label contracts with some of the country's largest retailers, including one of the largest pharmacy chains and one of the largest outdoor retailers, along with international private label customers. They streamlined their audit processes for both FDA and SQF audits with instant record access, scaled quality operations efficiently without proportional overhead increases, and improved verification workflows, allowing QA supervisors to review and approve forms digitally without handling stacks of paperwork.
"During the FDA audit, it was very easy for us to say, 'Oh yeah, here's the records. It's all in the system. Do you need us to print them for you? Cool. We'll print them right here.'" — Manager of QA at Spunky Pup
Why SpunkyPup Recommends Allera
Speed and Responsiveness
"If you're looking at implementing Allera as a food company—and a pet food company, not just human food—you're going to be able to do more quicker with Allera than you might with larger enterprises. They're going to be able to respond to you much quicker and make changes to the system and improvements quicker than some of these other companies might." — Manager of QA at Spunky Pup
Simplicity Without Sacrificing Functionality
"It's simpler than systems I've used before or seen before. Some of the competitors in this space probably have some more features, but if that's not what you want and you want to keep your things streamlined and simple, it is very, very streamlined." — Manager of QA at Spunky Pup
Access and Attention
"As a company of our size, nobody from other software companies in food is going to have their CEO sit with us. I think it shows that as a customer of Allera, you're going to have more access and more attention to your account." — Manager of QA at Spunky Pup
No
Overhead Increase
Scaled QA program without new hires.
SQF
Certified
Compliance gained.
0
Audit Findings
Audits became easy with accesseble documents.
100%
Adoption
Easy to use for all skill levels.
6 Week
Implementation
Complete deployment from start to finish
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